They would ask me what actors I saw in the roles. I would tell them, and they’d say “Oh that’s interesting.” And that would be the end of it.
--Elmore Leonard, in 2000, on the extent of his input for Hollywood's adaptation of his novels

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Robert Glinski's "The Friendship of Criminals"

Robert Glinski is a graduate of Washington University and Temple University School of Law. He was an attorney in Philadelphia and New Jersey for a decade before transitioning to investment advising. With two writing pieces recently optioned in Hollywood, he now spends his time crafting his next novel and finishing his first screenplay.

What crime fiction writer doesn’t dream of his or her characters hitting the big screen? Most of my all-time favorite films are novel adaptations so the evolution from page to projector has always struck me as a worthy and natural artistic progression, e.g., The French Connection, Goodfellas, Marathon Man, The Godfather, Jackie Brown, Mystic River, The Town, and Out of Sight.

I was lucky enough to option film/TV rights before publishing rights so this has been an actual discussion point we’ve mulled over with producers. One of my novel’s principal characters – a hustler named Sonny – is James Caan because Caan is the spitting image of the character’s real-life inspiration in terms of accent, mannerisms, bravado, and background. Sonny needs an actor who the audience believes can earn $100 million and spend $105 million with the same emotional trajectory. That’s Caan.

The protagonist – Anton Bielakowski, an old-school Polish mobster who stays true to his neighborhood – is either Harvey Keitel (ala his shaved head prisoner cameo in The Grand Budapest Hotel) or one of my favorite character actors – Armin Mueller-Stahl. Both have the chops and stones to carry a role that says a whole lot with a shut mouth.

For Anton’s son Marcek, we need a good-looking hood, a guy with a twinkle in his eye who knows first-hand all the book’s neighborhoods and street corners. Hello, Philly’s own Bradley Cooper. Marcek’s girlfriend Angie Spina – probably the novel’s most intelligent character - is Rooney Mara because Jennifer Lawrence is too obvious and no one is entitled to the perfect cast.

“Compared to a novel, a film is like an economy pizza where there are no olives, no ham, no anchovies, no mushrooms, and all you’ve got is the dough.”
--Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin